The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-12-18
A POET IN MID OCEAN.
Will Carleton Breasts the
BrinY Deep:
LIFE ON AN OCEAN STEAMER.
The Devils Hole"-Spasms- "A First
Cisss Hotel Travsrsing
the Seas.
Special Correspondence of The HERALD.
MID-OCEAN, December, 1887.

| so; there Is no way OF realizing the
phrases truth until we cling to the rail
ing of deck and look off upon the vast
restless plateau of waters. Nature this
morning is clothed in gray; there is
not a tint anywhere. AL things are as
dreary as winter landscape. The
clouds are gray; the waves are gray
the very wind would be gray ii we could
see it. We have left The Known, and
are ia the great mysterious country in
which no milestones can be reared, across
which no roads can be constructed. We
have left civilization, and are in the
midst of eternal barbarism, barbar-
ism so dense as to be without one hui
man inhabitant.
The only living thing We can see, as
we still cling to the rail and look off into
this land of all nations, is company. of
sea birds-those
FEATHERED MARINERS
who are sneakng through the air and
logging us i'll hopes that something will
be thrown overheard that they can eat.
They have come fifteen hundred miles
from their nest houses in the cliffs
these fisherm Il without boats, and
corsairs wicAout guilt. They are wild
rowing fellows, and seem to be having a
pretty good time, although, of course,
they get certain dividends of trouble
along WITH the rest of Gods creatures
The expenses, so to speak, of their long
sea HipS are very small; they ind tAeir
food IN the water, and carry feather
beds with them grown from their own
light and graceful bodies. When they
get tired and sleepy too" wave
serves for bedstead, and their breasts
for pillows; and so they sleep amid the
thunder of the storm.
Only one other class of living tkings
we see as we cling here and look away
these are half q dozen porpoises
having a good Time a quarter of mile
from US. They are diving into the air,
for sport, perhaps, the same as men and
BOYS would dive into the water. The
handsome profile of each fsh'S body is
for few seconds in full and pleasurable
view
But these are the only signs of animal
lite that greet own glance in this i'm
meuse wilderness country which mo-
nopolizes three tourths of the world.
Ali else is wide, restless grave.
We turn from this broad, inhospita-
BILE region TO the flying castle of which
we are part of the garrison. We are
astonished at the amount of civilization
which we take with US. farming away
| from the vague bitterness of death to
t g cheerful realities of life, we find
ourselves in a Grst-class hotel, stocked
with all the daiRties now known 10
mankind. Our breakfast had all the
dainty dishes we could expect in New
| York or Paris. Our MUSHROOM up
stairs was garnished and upholstered
by artists who dreamed as well as
| thought. We can pull servants quickly
| to our side by the wires of the electric
call bell. We illuminate our bedrooms
at night with the Aladdin-lamp of cleo
tricity. The world we have left has
sent a portion of its9lf with us, and
although prisoners OF the sea, we are
honored guests of the ships company.
We have the best and most powerful
of everything that the glittering nine
teenth century has thus far produced.
Ike walking beams of the engines could
pound the anvils of the gods We are
burning fifteen tons of coal per hour !;
enough to keep several families warm
for the winter. Our ship is one of the
| hugest of the artific ial monsters of the
sea that have yet been constructed,
surpassed in size, perhaps. only by that
unwieldy stack of iron and timber
called the Great Eastern. We have net
1asrely village ia the ocean, We have
alnost floating island. The nine
teenth century has built not only 8
telegraph across the, Atlantic, but 4
covered bridge lighted and sraa-
Aented.
As the day oreeps Oh, the wide decks
upon the leewRrd side OF the ship are
lined with
STEAMER. CHAIRS.
This is beneicent invention, ealeul-
xted to enable the occupant to sit ap
and lie down at the same time. Half-
chair and half couch, and easily folded
and slowed away with a baAg, 1t is sac
OF the nautical institu tons, and might
have well been worth patenting TO the
genius who involved it. tits Just about
the right length fer lady OF tnsdiuM
height; but whena sunicientlyloRg- leg
ged man gets into it, he 6nds that his
cells hang over, and are heavier than he
ever bad suspected while on land. Partly
for this reason the steamer chair is not
masculine faVorite, and is Aostly given
over TO the diYiner sex.
The deck-steWard is a smiling, but
slippery and mereeAary creature. whose
manneris placard reading: For sale
to the most piaeating Smiles and the
highest gratuities.n 1t is part of his
work to place ladies in tia steamer
chairs, and fold them in rags and thiags
until they look like some lately-dis-
covered sort of mumny, with the life
and charm of face,still preserved. The
lsdy-o many- attitudes Whils-oa her
fee; remains so, even when swathed in
the steamer-chsir; yoH eezld not de-
prive. her of those if YOU pat her in
steel gives and letters. She twists Der
neck ia different directions, and makes
eyes at the Rnrespeading waves: she
carries an injured expression of esun-
tenance, as il 1t were great eondesesn-
sion for her to be here at all. Sac calls
upon The steward every fifteen minutes
to reward and retuck her; when she
speaks, il is an injured toEe OF voice. a.
If she were some being Of a higher
SDhprn who had naaSaptsS tn taxa this